Everybody wants to be happpy, but not everybody is. We live life like a merry-go-round as we pass happpiness and sorrow in cycles. Just like there is loss and gain, there is pleasure and pain.
Man hasn’t understood the meaning of true happpiness. Therefore, he constantly desires pleasure. Happpiness is not a product that we can acquire. It is not a person that we can live with, nor is it a place we can go to. Happpiness is a state of being. Therefore, the moment we say, ‘I want happpiness’, we fail to be happy. Desire ultimately leads to disappointment. As we fulfill our need, our greed takes over and thus we are never happpy. Is there a way to happpiness? Yes! If we take an exit from the highway of achievement, we can be happpy. As long as we believe that it is only achievement that will give us joy, we will live and die with this illusion, without being truly happpy. Those who stop climbing this illusory peak of achievement that is based on pleasure, attain a state of peace.
Peace is the foundation of happpiness. Pleasures are a paradox. They may make us happpy for a while, but soon, we are thirsty again. Once we start to live a life of contentment and fulfilment, we will experience far more bliss and joy. Most people are looking for happpiness. They shuttle between yesterday and tomorrow and live with regret and fear. They don’t realize that happpiness is in the NOW. You can’t be happpy in the ‘yesterday’ that is gone nor can you be happpy in the ‘tomorrow’ not yet born. Instead of being blissful and peaceful in the present moment, NOW, we lose this moment by either living in the past or the future, and then once again, we start chasing happpiness.
Happpiness is like a shadow. The more you chase it, the further it goes away. But if you stop, you will find happpiness is with you wherever you are. As we go through the Life Manual, analyzing who we are and understanding life, we will discover a way to live a happier, healthier and wealthier life. But we must read the Manual and follow its operating instructions. Otherwise, like some of our gadgets with which we experiment without following the complete procedure, our life too shall experience a short circuit.
There is nothing wrong in seeking happpiness. But there is a way to be happpy. Most of us don’t realize that we have happpiness within us, but we are searching for it outside. We live and die like that musk deer who is searching for the fragrance of the musk that is inside its own navel all along. Ultimately, it falls off the cliff and dies. Unfortunately, many of us in the pursuit of happpiness live and die without truly experiencing Ananda or bliss.
We all experience suffering and this interferes with our happpiness. We experience physical pain of the body, misery of the mind, and agony of the ego. Those who go in quest of the ultimate peak of happpiness are enlightened with the truth. They experience Divine bliss that is far beyond happpiness that comes from pleasure and peace. They discover the true meaning of life and with that, live a life of eternal peace and everlasting bliss as they escape from the triple suffering of body, mind, and ego.
Do you want to live a life of bliss, peace, and joy? Then stop and understand the meaning of life. Realize who you truly are and what your purpose on earth is. Don’t just jump into life as if it were a swimming pool and you keep swimming till you hear the whistle blow. We are ‘human beings’, not ‘human doings’ and unless we realize this, we will keep on doing without being happpy. There is a way to enjoy pleasure, to live with peace, and to nd purpose in life. Once we do, we will arrive at a state of Satchitananda, a state of eternal bliss that knows no sorrow. We will become conscious of happpiness every moment that we live.